Young Adult – Zena Shapter

Project

When Dark Waters Burn

Stay out of sight. Stay hidden under the lake. Even as giant water-ants scout the surface, and deadly trees slop their hungry roots along the shoreline. For unrest surges in the swamps, getting closer and closer… Sala will only be safe for as long as their ship’s location remains a secret.
But when a horrifying threat ignites close to home, and the lakeside hillfarms are forced to reveal a desperate truth, it unleashes a wreckage of terror and destruction on the world of Palude. What Sala fears most becomes irrelevant. All she can do is run, and make one irrevocable choice after another. If she’s to have any kind of future, she must fight to accept the collapse of her past. Hiding from it was never an option.

When Dark Roots Hunt

Don’t go out onto the lake. Wyann trees search the shallows to spear passing prey with their roots. Giant water-ants hunt anything that moves on the water-skin. Sala’s village survives hidden behind a wall of poisonous ivy, because everyone agrees: don’t go out onto the lake.
But then a strange comet crosses the night sky, throwing Sala and her pet pointer into a race through wyann-infested swampland that has her risking it all, unearthing long-hidden truths and stirring rivalries into a terrifying conflict set to change the world of Palude forever. Sala must do whatever it takes to face the truth of who she is: to save her village, to save her family, to save herself. If only they had listened.

The Guitar Wizard

Fifteen-year-old Emerald O’Shea and her mother, Catherine, make a living wrangling their lion, Dhoruba, who’s been hired to appear at a rock concert. But when an anti-music group, the Aletheia, send Jack to steal the rock star’s guitar, Emerald’s true calling is discovered. If she doesn’t accept the unwanted gift she’s been given, and leave her comfort zone, music and everything on which it depends will disappear. All life. All people. All existence. The entire universe as we know it…

The Time of the Jade Spider

Fourteen-year-old Fingal O’Grady is convicted of theft and transported to Australia in the 1820s.
Almost two centuries later, fourteen-year-old would-be beautician Abigail Harrington finds a mysterious spider amulet and their two worlds collide. When both children are kidnapped they realise they’re in possession of an object with enormous power. The Peacock Spider of Tien Shan leads them on an exciting and dangerous journey where nothing is what it seems.

Rider & the Hummingbird

Fourteen-year-old Lan is a computer genius… and a prisoner. After poking around in exactly the wrong websites, Lan’s interest in drones has landed him in the High Country Youth Correctional Facility.

Not a good start.

Lan is resigned to his fate until he discovers that the mysterious hacktivist who framed him is part of a plot to kill thousands of people, including his mum and dad. With the help of Monk and his ferret, Lan breaks out of jail, and races to prevent a disaster that could change the face of Australia forever…